Method of making an undercollar



Sept 13, 1966 J. P. DOUGHERTY METHOD O-F MAKING AN UNDERCOLLAR Filed Dec. 16, 1963 INVENTOR. JOHN I? DOUGHERTY ATTORN;`

United States Patent C) 3,271,779 METHGD F MAKING AN UNDERCOLLAR John P. Dougherty, Teaneck, NJ., assignor to Monsanto Company, a corporation of Delaware Filed Dec. 16, 1963, Ser. No. 330,969 1 Claim. (Cl. 2-98) This invention relates to garments and more particularly to the construction and shaping of a collar having a nonwoven undercollar fabric composed of thermoplastic filaments.

Garments such as mens jackets, ladies jackets, coats and the like are given a shaped, stylish appearance by inserting in the collar between the outer material and the lining an undercollar fabric which generally consists of horsehair or other animal hair. For less expensive articles of clothing, linen fabric or jute fabric may be used. In the construction of the collar area with which this invention is immediately concerned, certain production problems in forming and shaping are encountered. Formerly, the collar consisted of a combination of fabrics each exhibiting certain physical characteristics which contribute to achieve the -desired appearance.

The physical properties require-d in the collar area include stiffness, a characteristic desired to support the collar, prevent wrinkling or curling as the collar rounds the neck and to exert a controlling effect on the shell fabric material which improves fit and prevents the collar from standing away from the neck area. It is desirable for the fabric forming the interlining or the undercollar structure to have felling qualities which will permit stitching on the raw edge while preventing the edge yarns from pulling out. The interlining must be thin to avoid a bulky appearance and must have a desirable outer texture, that is, one which will blend in color with the shell fabric and present a finished textile appearance. In view of the above, it is an object of this invention to provide an undercollar structure which is simple in design and inexpensive to fabricate.

A further object of this invention is to provide a collar with the proper stiffness, strength, felling qualities, outer texture and thinness.

Another object of this invention is to provide a collar which can be used in both dry cleanable and wash and wear garments by employing fibers stable to dry cleaning and washing.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a collar with an undercollar fabric which can be die cut to assure size and which does not have edges susceptible to ravelling, thus eliminating the final trimming operation.

A further object of this invention is to provide a collar which eliminates the separate cutting of undercollar cloth and canvas fabrics, blind stitching of undercollar and canvas fabrics and the luse of sewing thread to sew the face and two separate fabrics together.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent when the following detailed description is read in conjunction with the appended drawings, specifications and claims.

FIGURE 1 is a pictorial view showing a collar in juxtaposition vvith a coat, the collar having one er1-d turned over to show the undercollar fabric in a contiguous relationship with a shell fabric.

FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional view of the collar in a folded position showing the relative positions of the undercollar structure and the shell fabric.

FIGURE 3 is a back view of the collar showing the collar in an extended position and having been stitched to the surface fabric.

FIGURE 4 is a top view of an enlarged section of the undercollar fabric showing a scrim with a batting having been punched therein.

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In accordance with this invention, an undercollar fabric which is formed by punching a batting of textile fibers through a woven or knitted scrim is sewn on a surface fabric which is referred to as the shell fabric. The undercollar fabric and the shell fabric combine to form a collar which is aesthetically pleasing to the eye, durable and inexpensive to manufacture.

The undercollar fabric is formed by using a needle punching machine to punch a batting or a plurality of textile fibers through a stiff, resilient, woven or knitted scrim and to entangle the fibers with the woven or knitted scrim so as to securely lock the batting fibers therein. The needling operation is repeated as many times as is necessary to give a sufficient cover of surface fibers to o mask the backing scrim. Subsequent to the combining of the fibrous batt with the woven material, the fabric thereformed is dyed a color similar to that of the shell fabric so that the face and back of the material are of a uniform or blending color. The fabric is then brushed and sheared to effect smooth surfaces free of any long projecting fibers and then is presse-d or steamed or calendered in conventional textile fabric procedure. The finished fabric is die cut by a stamping machine or the like to a predetermined size. The pattern of the cut is contourly similar to the pattern of the shell fabric but the undercollar fabric is cut dimensionally smaller so as to provide the shell fabric with a margin, the margin being that portion thereof extending outwardly from an imaginary line traced thereon by the periphery of the undercollar fabric. The shell fabric has a portion of its periphery stitched to an inner lining of the article of apparel and a portion of its periphery sewn to the surface fabric of the article of apparel. fabric to the surface fabric, the shell fabric may be an extension of the surface fabric. The undercollar fabric is sewn to the surface along a length of its periphery while the remaining length thereof has the margin of the shell fabric fol-ded thereover and stitched thereto. Since the undercollar fabric is generally formed by piecing together a front and la back fabric, the formation of the undercollar fabric by the above described method eliminates the sewing of a face and back fabrics together to form an undercollar structure, the trimming of the fabrics after sewing, the use of sewing thread and the final trimming of the assembled collar piece to hide the unmatched backing fabric. The scrim which is the loosely woven or knitted material and the batting may be made from any fibrous material, preferably from a thermoplastic fiber,

such as, nylon, acrylic fibers or the like which may be both washe-d and dry cleaned.

lThe invention is illustrated in connection with the accompanying drawings in which the figures are illustrative of the preferred embodiment of the invention. It is to be understood that this invention is applicable to garments other than that generally described.

Certain parts of the coat or jacket are usually formed from at least two fabric plies of any suitable textile fabric, and the garment is built-up from a number of sections which are cut and individually shaped. FIGURE l shows a front view of a coat designated generally by reference numeral 10. The collar 11 as illustrated is comprised of a shell fabric 12 which is generally the cover material for the jacket or coat and the undercollar fabric or interlining 13. The surface area of the shell collar fabric 12 is generally dimensionally larger than the undercollar fabric 13, thereby permitting a portion of the shell fabric 12 to overlap the undercollar 13. This margin 14 is then folded over the edge of the undercollar fabric 13 and is then securely positioned thereon by the stitching 15. The lower portion of the undercollar fabric 13 is sewn to the coat 10 by stitching 16 while the lower portion of the shell fabric 12 which is in adjacent disposition with the Rather than sewing the shell C@ lower portion of the undercollar fabric 13 is sewn to an inner lining 19 of the coat 10. After the collar 11 is sewn thereto the coat is available for immediate use.

The undercollar fabric 13 is a nonwoven fabric formed by needle punching a batting 18 of brous material into a Woven or knitted scrim 17. In the manufacturing process the batting 18, which before punching is a layer of fluffy laments, is laid over the scrim. Tufting needles (not shown) are then utilized in the conventional manner to punch the batting 18 into the scrim 17 which positions it for the next process. The scrim 17 with the batting 18 having been punched therein is then subjected to a stabilizing process which consists of treating the scrim and batting with a dilute solution of zinc fluroborate or some bonding agent having similar properties. The dilute solution of Zinc fluroborate is used as the bonding agent where the scrim and the batting are composed of acrylic filaments. It is to be noted that other salts having the same characteristics may be used with equal effectiveness as a bonding agent. The bonding agent fuses the fibers at their points of contact thereby forming a strong nonwoven fabric. While the bonded fabric contains the bonding agent, it is dried and cured, i.e., letting the bonding agent securely set the contiguous filaments. The bonded fabric having been cured is ready to be scoured, dyed, brushed, sheared and calendered thereby completing the process and rendering the fabric ready for immediate use as an undercollar fabric. Since the scrim 17 and the batting 1S are bonded together, the warps and lling comprising the scrim have no tendency to unravel, thereby rendering the nonwoven cloth susceptible for die stamping.

Many different embodiments of this invention may be made without departing from the scope and spirit thereof. It is contemplated that many combinations of thermoplastic or natural filaments may be used in forming the undercollar fabric. Therefore, it is to be understood that this invention is not to be limited to the specic embodiment shown yand described herein, eXcep-t as defined in the appended claim.

I claim:

A method for manufacturing an undercollar for maintaining the shape of a deformable material in a collar comprising the steps of:

(a) placing battings composed of a plurality of loose bers disposed in a randomly oriented relationship on both faces of a foundation scrim composed of interlocking bers formed in a web;

(b) needle-punching said battings into said web thereby locking said battings to said web and forming a coherent non-woven fabric;

(c) fusingsaid fibers together at their points of contact by subjecting said nonwoven fabric to a bonding agent which is a solvent to the fibers of said batting and said scrim;

(d) drying and curing said bonded, non-woven fabric;

(e) subjecting said fabric to desired textile finishing operations; and

(f) cutting undercollars to desired dimensions from said fabric by die stamping.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 527,561 10/1894 Schloss 2-98 999,503 8/1911 Klein 2-98 1,090,409 3/ 1914 Reisman 2-98 3,117,905 1/1964 Smith 161-64 3,161,888 12/ 1964 Von Eisenhart-Rothe 2 98 3,191,557 6/1965 Moore 112-2 JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

RICHARD l. SCANLAN, IR., Examiner. 

